On the Holographic Geometry of Deterministic Computation

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that deterministic Turing machine computations can be represented holographically, with the information in the bulk encoded on a lower-dimensional boundary, reducing the complexity from linear to square-root scale.

Contribution

It introduces a geometric and information-theoretic reinterpretation of the Height Compression Theorem, establishing a holographic boundary representation for deterministic computation.

Findings

Boundary summaries have total description length O(√t)

Internal configurations have constant complexity given boundary data

Spacetime bulk information is determined by boundary data

Abstract

Standard simulations of Turing machines suggest a linear relationship between the temporal duration $t$ of a run and the amount of information that must be stored by known simulations to certify, verify, or regenerate the configuration at time $t$. For deterministic multitape Turing machines over a fixed finite alphabet, this apparent linear dependence is not intrinsic: any length-$t$ run can be simulated using $O(\sqrt{t})$ work-tape cells via a Height Compression Theorem for succinct computation trees together with an Algebraic Replay Engine. In this paper we recast that construction in geometric and information-theoretic language. We interpret the execution trace as a spacetime DAG of local update events and exhibit a family of recursively defined holographic boundary summaries such that, along the square-root-space simulation, the total description length of all boundary data stored at any time is $O(\sqrt{t})$. Using Kolmogorov complexity, we prove that every internal configuration has constant conditional description complexity given the appropriate boundary summary and time index, establishing that the spacetime bulk carries no additional algorithmic information beyond its boundary. We express this as a one-dimensional computational area law: there exists a simulation in which the information capacity of the active "holographic screen'' needed to generate a spacetime region of volume proportional to $t$ is bounded by $O(\sqrt{t})$. In this precise sense, deterministic computation on a one-dimensional work tape admits a holographic representation, with the bulk history algebraically determined by data residing on a lower-dimensional boundary screen.